Charles I is one of many copies, of widely varying quality, after Van Dyck’s Charles I in Robes of State (Royal Collection). An official image, it would have been often copied, and became the most widely known image of the King, both at home and abroad. The Wallace Collection’s copy reduces the full-length format of the original to three-quarter length, and abandons all attempt to replicate the monumental background. Following Charles I’s execution and the restoration of his son Charles II to the throne in 1660, images of the martyred King came back into favour. It seems probable that the present copy was painted in the eighteenth century by an artist capitalising on the fashion for images of the martyred King. Pendant to P118.